McPeek has three solid chances in Alcibiades

On a weekend when he’ll be in Baltimore trying to make Swiss Skydiver the fourth filly to win a Preakness, trainer Ken McPeek has three chances to win his fifth Alcibiades Stakes back home at Keeneland on Friday.

Only four other entrants stand between one of McPeek’s trio – Crazy Beautiful, Oliviaofthedesert, and Simply Ravishing – joining She’s a Devil Due (2000), Take Charge Lady (2001), Dream Empress (2008), and Restless Rider (2018) as McPeek-trained Alcibiades winners.

“I think they all fit,” McPeek said.

He is not wrong. Oliviaofthedesert will be the longest price of the three but was a handy two-turn dirt maiden winner at Ellis Park two starts ago before finishing a solid third at Kentucky Downs in the Juvenile Fillies on Sept. 7. Simply Ravishing won an off-the-turf renewal of the P.G. Johnson Stakes in a romp, earning a field-best 81 Beyer Speed Figure, while Crazy Beautiful might be the most talented of the bunch, though she was beaten, with trouble, in the Pocahontas Stakes last out.

The Grade 1, $350,000 Alcibiades, contested over 1 1/16 miles on dirt, headlines the opening card of Keeneland’s fall meet and is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series offering the winner automatic fees-paid entry into the BC Juvenile Fillies, run over the same course and distance Nov. 6. Friday’s 10-race program, first post 1:05 Eastern, includes the Phoenix Stakes, a six-furlong dash that drew a surprisingly large cast of 12, headed by Whitmore, Echo Town, No Parole, and Diamond Oops. Friday’s forecast calls for sunshine and a high of 60 degrees.

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The Alcibiades route trip often weeds out fillies meant to be sprinters, but the McPeek three already have won around two turns.

Crazy Beautiful, by Liam’s Map and out of the Indian Charlie mare Indian Burn, fought her rider early in her career debut, a two-turn Ellis Park turf mile, before settling down and cruising to an easy win. Switched to dirt and cut back to seven furlongs, she won the Debutante there over seven furlongs. McPeek said he was disappointed the Pocahontas Stakes in September at Churchill was shortened this year from two turns to a one-turn mile, and Crazy Beautiful, moving sharply into contention around the far turn after racing last of nine, got caught behind a wall of horses, her rider forced to steady before finding daylight 300 yards from the finish. Crazy Beautiful finished strongly and galloped out in front, but victorious Girl Daddy never came back to her.

“She had to steady pretty hard, and the eventual winner got the jump. She wants two turns anyway. I think she wins the Pocahontas going two turns,” McPeek said.

Crazy Beautiful breaks from post 4 under Brian Hernandez Jr. Oliviaofthedesert has post 3 and Corey Lanerie, Simply Ravishing post 7 and Luis Saez.

Simply Ravishing debuted with a two-turn turf maiden win at Saratoga, and after contemplating a move to dirt for the Grade 1 Spinaway, McPeek elected to keep her around two turns and stick to turf in the P.G. Johnson, only to have that race rained off and moved to seven furlongs on dirt. Simply Ravishing, a physically advanced filly with a route-leaning stride and speed, nevertheless won easily, drawing away to post a 6 1/2-length score, albeit over just three rivals.

“She trains like any kind of horse,” McPeek said. “She’s done everything we’ve ever asked her to do.”

Thoughtfully is the race’s only graded winner, having captured the Grade 2 Adirondack over 6 1/2 furlongs at Saratoga by five lengths on Aug. 12. Trained by Steve Asmussen, Thoughtfully romped in her career debut. She cost the Heider Family Trust $950,000 at auction, and as a daughter of Tapit and Pension, by Seeking the Gold, has a route-friendly pedigree. She beat a modest bunch at Saratoga with only a 69 Beyer but has ample room to improve.

Trainer Brad Cox won his first Alcibiades last fall with British Idiom and has a chance for a second with Travel Column. Travel Column, by Frosted out of Swingit, by Victory Gallop (making her a sister to $2 million earner Neolithic) showed a lot of speed winning her six-furlong debut Sept. 4 at Churchill and easily could wind up the pacesetter Friday.

Extrema twice has been solidly defeated by Crazy Beautiful, but the other Alcibiades entrant, Gramercy, is intriguing. She won her debut, a seven-furlong Polytrack race at Arlington, by two lengths, that after trailing by nearly 10 approaching the quarter pole. Gramercy, a Godolphin homebred by Bernardini, is a very leggy filly with scope and a long, reaching stride.

“Distance won’t be a problem,” said trainer Eoin Harty, who thinks his filly will act on dirt. “The competition might be, but stamina isn’t a concern.”